Re: Near-fatal OOPS waiting to happen in PDM (or THANK GOD

[Jeff Crosby <jlcrosby@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I've got a few critical things where I do something similar.

Since these things are command driven, the command would look like this:

CMD        PROMPT('Run All Billing')

PARM       KWD(RUN) +
             TYPE(*CHAR) +
             LEN(1) +
             RSTD(*YES) +
             DFT(*NO) +
             SPCVAL((*YES Y) (*NO N)) +
             PROMPT('Run all billing?')

PARM       KWD(CONFIRM) +
             TYPE(*CHAR) +
             LEN(1) +
             RSTD(*YES) +
             DFT(*NO) +
             SPCVAL((*YES Y) (*NO N)) +
             PMTCTL(CNFDSP) +
             PROMPT('Are you sure?')

CNFDSP: PMTCTL     CTL(RUN) +
                     COND((*EQ Y))

The command pops up with the RUN parm as *NO.  The user must change it to
*YES.  Only then does the CONFIRM parm pop up, also as *NO and the use must
change it to *YES.

Then the CPP checks both parms and if they're not both "Y", issues this:

SNDUSRMSG  MSGID(USR9897) +
                   MSGF(MSG) +
                   MSGDTA('Not confirmed.  Run all billing is cancelled at +
                   your request.  (C)') +
                   VALUES('C' 'c') +
                   TOMSGQ(&JOB) +
                   MSGRPY(&MSGREPLY)


The only thing the user can enter is a "C" after which he/she sees:

SNDPGMMSG  MSGID(USR9897) +
                 MSGF(MSG) +
                 MSGDTA('Run All Billing was NOT run because confirmation +
                 was not received.')

It's saved our collective bacons more than once.


On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 7:14 AM, Jerry C. Adams <midrange@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Bill,
>
> Good point.  The package that we use ALWAYS asks the user to "Press Enter
> to
> Continue."  Now for a simple report that's okay, but for critical issues
> that I wrote (or modify) I always make the user press a function key, and
> then give them a screen that says "You canceled this process" so they won't
> come running to me and say, "Process X is taking forever."  Better safe
> than
> sorry.
>
> Jerry C. Adams
> IBM i Programmer/Analyst
> How can you think and hit at the same time? - Yogi Berra
> --
> A&K Wholesale
> Murfreesboro, TN
> 615-867-5070
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of William A. Hansen
> Sent: Monday, April 18, 2011 4:30 PM
> To: midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: Near-fatal OOPS waiting to happen in PDM (or THANK GOD
>
> When I teach stand-up classes for operators, I point out that most
> operators
> seem to have built-in wiring:  seeing a confirmation screen causes them to
> press the Enter key, typically within 30ms.
>
> I've found only one screen (perform an IPL now from the POWER menu) where
> the "go ahead" response is F16 rather than Enter.  Do you  know of any
> others?
>
> Bill
>
> William A. Hansen
> whansen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Manta Technologies Inc.
> Toll-free: (800) 406-2682 x 101
> Direct: (303) 862-4562
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